The Infant Welfare Movement in the Eighteenth Century.

Abstract

The author gives the story of the progress made in infant welfare in London during the eighteenth century. He gives in detail the reasons for the tremendous infant mortality at the beginning of the century, and develops this to the opening of the Foundling Hospital by Thomas Coram. He gives this movement in detail with the work of William Cadogan, Jonas Hanway and George Armstrong. Much of the literature of the time has been consulted, and there is a complete bibliography. This book fills a place in the history of the development of infant welfare. Strangely enough the beginning steps made in the eighteenth century have not been fully enough realized, and this justifies the writing of such a book. It is well written and bound attractively, and should have a place in the library of any one interested in the development of pediatrics.